What do you listen to while you work?
I usually listen to old favorites. A lot of Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Jose Gonzalez.

How do you listen?
If I’m at my drafting table cutting a map, I often listen to my iPod with headphones. It allows me to concentrate a bit more. If I’m writing emails or packaging orders, I listen to music on my MacBook.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers?
I sometimes listen to LastFM.com.

Does music influence your work?
The music I listen to is often nostalgic. It reminds me of certain times in my life and I find myself reflecting on how fortunate I am. In that way, my music is often like the maps I create. They are both mementos of where we’ve been and where we’re going.  Almost like souvenirs of favorite moments and favorite places in our lives.

What song or artist best represents the work you create?
My favorite musician is Ben Harper. His music and my artwork are both original creations that evolve over time and are created with hard work and dedication.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist:
The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman in the creamy white leather and walnut veneer. It’s modern, luxurious, and the perfect place to reflect and create.

Karen’s Playlist:
1. In the Colors, Ben Harper
2. Girl on Fire, Alicia Keys
3. I Will Wait, Mumford & Sons
4. Heartbeats, Jose Gonzalez
5. Someone Like You, Adele
6. You Are the Best Thing, Ray LaMontagne
7. What You Thought You Need, Jack Johnson
8. Home, Phillip Phillips
9. One More Night, Maroon 5
10. Where I’m Going, The Nadas

Photos: Karen O’Leary

Growing up in Japan, designer Akira Yoshimura developed a keen tactile sense and early appreciation of distinctive forms and objects. His passion for aesthetics and keen ability to express beauty through the manipulation of dimension laid the foundation for ShyShadow. Formed in 2007, ShyShadow produces an array of products from paper to furniture to home goods, seeking to promote a unique interaction between people and the products they use. Akira shares the unique interaction between himself, his work and his musical tastes in this week’s Playlist.

What do you listen to while you work?
I listen to various genres of music from modern jazz, to house, to 90′s Japanese hip-hop.

How do you listen?
While working on my iMac, I prefer listening to music from my Audio Technica earphones.  I always buy a pair or two when I visit Tokyo and have a good collection next to my workstation.

If I am doing more physical work, such as silk screening tote bags or cutting paper to create prototypes, I really enjoy listening through Harman-Kardon SoundSticks.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers?
Definitely Pandora, it exposes me to new songs and musicians of similar taste.  I must have bought over 50 songs this year alone!  I recently started listening to NPR Music on late nights.

Does music influence your work?
Yes. Jazz, while working on loose concept sketches (above).

House/Electronica/Hip hop – Staring at the computer, clicking the mouse like a heart beat, trying to create those exact lines I had imagined, or working on presentation boards (below). Sometimes I listen to the same tune over and over again to get momentum.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste?
My very close friend (who used to live in NYC) is one talented drummer. He has introduced me to countless live music events in NYC from Brooklyn to Harlem. I can recall occasions when we were up till dawn listening to live Jazz in the West Village.  I normally brought my sketch book and did quick doodles.  His knowledge of music has had a profound effect on what I listen to today.

What song or artist best represents the work you create?
“Big Country” by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Such an uplifting melody, it resembles my philosophy and approach to design.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist:
The ideal place to sit and listen to my playlist is from a high-rise apartment, [sitting in] the Eames Molded Plywood Lounge Chair with Metal Base (Walnut Veneer Seat) and looking down on the busy streets of a large, crowded city, where cars and trucks go by like flickering neon signs. Once windows are tightly shut, and silence embraces your space, you are ready to hit the first tune.

The form of the chair allows you to sit in many ways.  My music selection crosses over many genres and resembles the versatility this chair possesses. I think of Herman Miller furniture not just as furniture but rather as timeless sculpture pieces. They continue to vividly enhance your lifestyle wherever you live.

Akira’s Playlist:
1. Set Me Free, Kevin Yost
2. Nadia, Nitin Sawhney
3. Dream Machine, Mark Farina
4. Ad Lib on Nippon, Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra
5. I Say a Little Prayer, Rahsaan Roland Kirk
6. Red River Revel, Brian Blade Fellowship
7. Mind Ecology, Shakti (with John McLaughlin)
8. Red Clay, Freddie Hubbard
9. El Aparato, Café Tacvba
10. Tamacun, Rodrigo Y Gabriela

Photos: Akira Yoshimura

When you purchase paper, buy recycled. According to Treehugger manufacturing recycled paper requires 60% less energy than virgin paper– each ton purchased saved 4000 kWh of energy. To find out how much energy you are using and can save check out their handy recycled paper calculator. There are a lot of recycled paper products. New Leaf Paper is a company that offers a wide variety of competitively priced recycled paper products. They are committed to offering environmentally responsible and economically sound paper.

Or even better try treeless-paper. These products go a step further in that no trees have been destroyed. Instead innovative resources such as sugar cane, elephant dung and bamboo are used.

And once you’ve used it – recycle it. You can recycle internally by using the back of the page as well as the front and then make sure that paper finds its way to your recycling bin instead of the trash. According to the book Trash to Cash, by Fran Berman, “recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, two barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for six months), 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space and 60 pounds of air pollution.”

We’d love to hear about your paper-saving tips. Leave a comment or email us (lifework_blog@hermanmiller.com).

Above is Al Gore’s paper-filled office via LifeHacker.

When it’s a notepad. A PixelPad has all the design grace of the iPad but is about as low tech as you can get. And it’s so much cheaper. For $24 you get a 64-page pad (printed with vegetable inks), 3 pens and a refill-pad. And while it’s designed for web designers (hence the 10-pixel grid) I think most of us would appreciate the clean design. Read the history of the PixelPad here. Looks like Andrew, the designer, should have jumped on the iPad name a little sooner!